Page 43 of Unwrapping His Naughty Secret

Chapter 17

Cara

The framed pencilsketch is a drawing of me, smiling shyly, with the Main Street Branch of the Conception Ridge Public Library behind me. To one side of me is the alley where we had our first kiss. Behind me on the other side is Main Street, and in the background is a pickup truck parked on the opposite side of the street.

Hunter has drawn himself standing beside that truck, watching me.

Hannah stares down at the scene in confusion. “This is… Wait a minute. Dad, is that… you?”

Itrace a finger over the drawing. It doesn’t look like something even a really talented person could do in a hurry.

Lifting my head, I meet his gaze. “When did you draw this?”

“As soon as I got home that afternoon.”

“What afternoon?” Hannah shakes her head in confusion.

Hunter doesn’t shy away from her question. He looks at her, steady as can be, and he says, “I met Cara last week, sweetie. Neither of us knew about our shared connection to you. We had a coffee date, and it was honestly the best date of my entire life. You know her. I bet that’s not a surprise. She’s…incredible. But I did something stupid. I made a bad judgement call, assuming for the both of us that I was too old for her.”

“Becauseyou are.” She glares at him, and they’ve never looked more alike than in this moment. “Dad! What the fuck? You’re the idiot who ghosted her?”

“Which was a mistake.”

“And then I brought her to you? Ew, Dad!”

“Some connections transcend?—”

“No. No. Nooooo. Not my lab partner. I wanted Cara to be my bestie!”

“She can still?—”

She turns on me. “Care Bear. Mydad?”

“I didn’t know,” I whisper. “And then when you brought me here…”

“Ohgross.” She throws her hands in the air. “Well, now Christmas is ruined.”

“Not for me,” Wyatt says. “Maybe you just need to eat more pancakes.”

Hannah stares at him.

And then she bursts into tears and races out of the room.

Emily slowly looks from me to Hunter, and then to Wyatt and Heath. “Hunter is the guy from the dating app? The ‘best kiss of your life’ liar?”

“Itwasthe best kiss of my life,” Hunter says steadily as he crosses to stand beside me. He gazes down at me as he adds, “I just didn’t handle that well.”

“And you two knew about this?” She wags her finger at her husbands.

“I figuredout that they were sneaking around last night,” Heath says. “I didn’t know anything about the app.”

“And I just figured it out this morning,” Wyatt says. “There wasn’t time to tell you.”

Emily frowns at Heath. “You could have told us last night.”

“It seemed like their private business,” he says mildly. “And this was more fun.” He glances at the ceiling. “Broken daughter hearts aside.”

Hunter shakes his head. “I should go talk to her.”

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